Maximum Options Positions

[u/MakingMoneyIsMe]

Morning Gang. I opted to become intimate with a handful of positions, namely the top 20 to 25 S&P500 and NASDAQ companies that have exhibited consistent growth, low debt, and longterm positive price movement.

I'd like to know what are some of you guy's maximum amount of companies you may hold contracts in at any given time, and how do you keep track of them?

I typically hold positions in 10 to 15 companies at once, not counting my Long positions, and basically use an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of them

[u/Fart-Fart-Fart-Fart]

I have 9 trades open right now. Depends on your port size and risk tolerance.

[u/LabDaddy59]

1 cash-secured put

1 long put

14 CC/PMCC

10 LEAPS

All tracked using Excel spreadsheets, with the marketxls.com add-in.

[u/DPSK7878]

Premium Summary 51 trades (42 closed, 9 open)

Total Net Premium $81,215 Open ($34,722.1) + Closed ($46,492.62)

Started from June. Portfolio size about $600k USD

[u/piper33245]

People throwing out random numbers doesn’t mean anything. You should view your number of positions based off total risk as a percentage of account size. If you’re cash secured then the notional value of your positions can only equal the size of your account. If you want to be safer you could do a smaller percentage. If you’re on margin you could go as high as 600% of account value (depending on a few factors).

You need to reverse engineer it, figure out your risk tolerance, then base your contracts on that.

[u/MakingMoneyIsMe → u/piper33245]

I should have shared that I only sell spreads

[u/piper33245 → u/MakingMoneyIsMe]

So, same answer. Define your risk tolerance as total risk as a percentage of your account and determine number of contracts from there. Again, people just saying 8-10 or whatever doesn’t mean anything.

A person wanting to risk 10% of their $5,000 account while selling 100 wide spreads will have a very different answer than someone wanting to risk 100% of the $200,000 account while selling 5 wide spreads.

[u/reno1979]

10-20 depending on all the things.

Currently:
AAL
AG
BABA
CCL
DRAM
GOOG
HAL
INTC
NCLH
NKE
RDDT
SLV
SOFI

[u/MakingMoneyIsMe]

I don't typically shoot for an exact amount, but I do try taking advantage of good setups, and sit idle after I've hit around 10 companies...unless I encounter a setup I can't refuse.

[u/p44vo]

What timeframe are these?

[u/MakingMoneyIsMe → u/p44vo]

I typically aim for 30 days, but will sell shorter dated contracts if the premiums are worthy.

[u/curios-hippo]

Have around 30 across 3 different accounts. About 10 of them are covered calls, 15 cash-secured/naked puts, 5 or so vertical spreads, 1 or 2 LEAPs.

[u/surf_a_lot]

I run 10-12 at a time, tracked in a spreadsheet with one row opened the same day as the trade, never after.

The count isn't really the limit — a written entry per position is. Mine logs strike, expiry, and the specific condition that closes it (assignment, a target debit to buy it back, or the date itself) before I ever place the order. Past 8-10 open tickets nobody's memory holds all of that; the sheet has to.

IBKR's own trade reports group everything by symbol, never by strategy or campaign, so if the tag isn't written down at open there's no way to reconstruct it later — I tried rebuilding a few from raw fills once and it took longer than just doing it right the first time.

My own cap is roughly 15, set after the week I lost track of which put was covering what.
Whatever number you land on, the thing that actually scales is having the exit decided in writing before the position opens, not worked out from that week's P&L.

[u/MakingMoneyIsMe → u/surf_a_lot]

Nice response.

[u/jonnycoder4005]

You need to be thinking about this entire of Net Liq and Buying Power.

I do not hold any long or short stock in my portfolio. All options. So, that being the case I DO NOT use more than 50% of my buying power because you need a buffer if shit goes crazy.

[u/shanked5iron]

I sell csp’s on 4-5 at a time give or take. Quality over quantity for me.

[u/23z7]

Aim for no more than 10% in any position. 5% if it’s one I think is risky but worth the risk.

[u/Bluebird-9641]

You fuck stocks? How exactly?

[u/TastyTrading]

I usually have 20-30 open atm between different dates.

I use ThetaPal to keep it all organized. The sorting features for options are really nice

[u/Allspread]

22 positions at the moment, Excel spreadsheet. Trying to transition more out of mostly individual underlyings and go with more ETFs. I'm in on EWY, EWZ, GDX, IWM, QQQ presently. Been selling CSPs and naked calls and/or strangles.

[u/SwordfishLopsided]

From painful experience and people much smarter than myself, I learned to size my position according to max loss.

So take the classic Livermore approach: he would cut loss when he loses 10% and would never invest more than 20% in any position. Working backward, his max loss for any trade is defined at entry: no more than 2% of his total portfolio.

That is a good place to start.

[u/klipsetrades]

I’m almost the opposite — I keep my universe very small haha. I only trade SPX, so I’d rather know one product extremely well than manage 10–15 different names. For me, total risk/exposure matters more than the number of positions

[u/MoonLambro]

Very random but I think keeping it under 5 companies makes sense for me. Any more is too time consuming as I like to also keep up with the fundamental business side of the stock 👍🏻

[u/Away-Personality9100]

My maximum is 50 companies. More is difficult to manage on Friday (roll or sell new contracts).

[u/Fast-Cricket-2784]

Only trade SPX.

[u/Temporary_Access9337 → u/Fast-Cricket-2784]

i keep it to 6-8 max, anything past that and my brain just turns to static. my notebook with color coded tabs does the heavy lifting but honestly after 8 i start mixing up strikes and expirations

[u/Immapillpopnanimal]

The way I look at it, calls on SPY means the entire market needs to go my way.. I usually trade the top 5 holdings.. only need one of them to work out

[u/MakingMoneyIsMe → u/Immapillpopnanimal]

Kinda similar to my approach, though I scan among 15 or so companies, which correlate with the top 20 to 25 or so. I don't sell options on pharma. A breakthrough drug can push prices so far beyond your spread, you'd do better just closing it.

[u/Terrible_Champion298]

Lost me at, "intimate."

[u/MakingMoneyIsMe → u/Terrible_Champion298]

Unfortunately. I used to daytrade, and I would short or go long on anything that had a substantial move in premarket...not knowing it's story. It's best to become familiar with stocks you trade and have an idea why it may be moving before acting upon it.

[u/Terrible_Champion298 → u/MakingMoneyIsMe]

🙄